Order monitors are virtual profiles that let you configure the appearance and assignments of order steps and article groups on a monitor. A monitor profile determines which orders and articles appear on a particular screen – so every station in your business sees exactly the information that is relevant to it.
Info: To use order monitors, you need the "Order Monitor" module. For more information on using monitors at the Sales Point, see Order Monitor.
Use Cases
The flexible configuration of monitor profiles makes it possible to map a wide variety of stations in your business:
-
Kitchen monitor – Shows all food orders for the kitchen (e.g. main courses, sides).
-
Station monitors – For specialised kitchen stations such as salads, soups, burgers, pizzas or grill. Each station only sees the article groups relevant to it.
-
Drinks monitor / bar monitor – Shows only drinks orders at the bar.
-
Serving monitor – Shows at the kitchen pass which orders are ready and where they belong.
-
Clearing monitor – Shows which tables are overdue for clearing.
Monitor List Overview
In the overview, all created order monitor profiles are displayed as a list. The following columns are available:
|
Column |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Name |
Name of the monitor profile |
|
Order steps |
The order steps assigned to the monitor |
|
Article groups |
The article groups assigned to the monitor |
|
Delete |
Delete monitor profile (trash icon) |
|
Edit |
Edit monitor profile (pencil icon) |
Configure a Monitor Profile
When creating or editing a monitor profile, you have three tabs available: Monitor, Order Steps and Article Groups.
Monitor
In the "Monitor" tab, you set the general settings of the monitor profile:
|
Setting |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Name |
Name of the monitor profile (e.g. "Kitchen", "Bar", "Serving Station") |
|
Show orders |
Activate this option to display individual orders as tickets in the grid. |
|
Show article overview |
Activate this option to show a column with a summary of all articles currently active on the monitor. This shows, for example, "28 schnitzels", so the kitchen knows how many portions should be in preparation. |
|
Rows / Columns |
Sets the size of the grid. The optimal setting depends on the monitor size and the average length of the orders. It is best to test the settings directly on the monitor. |
|
Time to priority |
Time in seconds after which an order is highlighted in yellow (priority). |
|
Time to rush |
Time in seconds after which an order is highlighted in red (rush/late). |
|
Printing group |
Select the printing group on which the order ticket is printed when the order is marked as "Done". It applies to the whole monitor and only takes effect if the order step in question has no printing group of its own — see Which Printing Group Applies. |
Tip: Start with a medium grid setting (e.g. 3 × 3) and adjust the rows and columns until the display on your monitor is optimal.
Order Steps
In the "Order Steps" tab you assign the desired order steps to the monitor. This determines which steps should be visible on the monitor.
Every row additionally shows the printing group that this monitor prints on when an order moves into this step. Edit the row and the printing group of the order step is already prefilled — keep it or pick a different one. Two stations working the same order step therefore print on their own printers.
The same assignment can also be made on the monitor itself, in the monitor settings under Status — see Order Monitor. Both routes write the same entry.
Important: Progression from step to step is always sequential based on all configured steps – not just on the steps assigned to the monitor. If an order or article moves to a step that is not assigned, the order disappears from the screen.
For more information on order steps and how to configure them, see the Configure Order Steps section.
Article Groups
In the "Article Groups" tab you assign the article groups that should be displayed on the monitor. In addition, for visual differentiation per article group, you can set the background colour and the text colour. This way, for example, starters, main courses and desserts can be visually distinguished.
Filtering Individual Articles of a Group
You do not have to take the whole article group. When editing an assigned article group you decide which articles of that group appear on the monitor: a search field plus Select all and Deselect all let you remove individual articles or add them back. A summary shows how many articles of the group are currently active.
A typical case: the "Drinks" group is attached to the bar monitor, but the coffee specialities within it should only appear at the coffee station.
Articles that no longer exist are removed from the selection automatically – the filter does not silently go stale.
If a whole group should no longer appear, do not deselect every article; remove the group from the monitor instead.
Configure Order Steps
Order steps define the individual phases that an order or article goes through – from intake to completion. The configuration of order steps can be reached via the gear icon.
Each order step has a number that determines its position in the order. There are three fixed steps that cannot be deleted:
|
Step |
Number |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
New |
0 |
Order has just been placed |
|
Done |
-1 |
Order is complete |
|
Cancelled |
-2 |
Order has been cancelled |
Between these fixed steps you can create as many of your own steps as you like. An order or article goes through all the steps sequentially. Moving to the next step is done directly on the monitor by tapping the order ticket or article.
Example of order steps in a kitchen: New (0) → In Preparation (1) → On the Grill (2) → Plating (3) → Done (-1)
Printing Group on the Order Step
Every order step additionally carries a printing group. It determines what is printed when an order moves into that step — and applies to all monitors that work this step and have no printing group of their own for it.
Which Printing Group Applies
As of version 6.1.0 every monitor additionally carries its own printing group per order step — set in the "Order Steps" tab of the monitor profile or on the monitor itself. Two stations working the same step can therefore print on different printers; until then they all printed on the same one.
When printing, the Sales Point looks for a printing group in this order and takes the first one that is set:
-
The printing group of this monitor for this order step — set in the "Order Steps" tab or on the monitor.
-
The printing group of the order step — set here in bessa Manager, valid for every monitor without an entry of its own.
-
The printing group of the monitor profile — the Printing group field in the "Monitor" tab.
If none of the three levels carries a printing group, nothing is printed.
An existing setup keeps printing unchanged. No per-step entries are created for monitors that already existed before the update. Without such an entry, level 2 applies and then level 3 — exactly the resolution that was in place before 6.1.0. So there is nothing to catch up on unless you need separate printers.
Example: kitchen and bar both work the step In Preparation. The order step carries the printing group Kitchen. In the "Bar" monitor profile you set the printing group Bar for this step. The result: the kitchen monitor keeps printing on Kitchen, the bar monitor on Bar — without anything changing in the general setting.
Related Articles
-
Order Monitor – using and operating the monitors at the Sales Point
-
Article Groups – managing article groups
-
Location Management – overview of all location settings
-
Printing Groups – configuration of printing groups